BURGER VILLAGE IS OPEN
More soon when I can sample the goods (my friends there last night gave a thumbs up to the Bison burger and a guy on the street who had volunteered to take a picture of the family who owns the franchise said the best order was the Impossible burger with tater tots) but in the meantime, our franchise of Burger Village, at 120 Church just south of Murray, in the old Schnipper’s space, is now open. Will have opening hours later today and will update this post.

GITANO ON GOVERNORS IS OPEN
They really pulled that together fast! Gitano, which was on the empty Trinity Church site on Canal and Varick, has relocated to Governors and is now called Gitano Island. Other news from Governors here. 

BOBBY VAN’S IN FIDI HAS CLOSED
Bobby Van’s, which has had an outpost on Broad Street since 2006, closed on July 7. I thought the old-school steakhouse had been there a lot longer, but there are older ones in Midtown, a couple of which have also closed. Crain’s has a story.

AND A REFLECTION ON BROAD STREET POST-COVID
Jon Pepper, whose office was across the street till he just moved it to 3 WTC, had this insight: “Broad Street these days is clogged largely with dog walkers, tourists and journos doing remotes in front of NYSE. Office space is shrinking fast. 55 Broad is converting to residential and One Wall Street is opening as a residential building. I was, until last week, at 60 Broad, which had largely emptied out and was getting an eerie ghost-like feel. My floor was about 15 percent occupied on average and there were very few people on the elevators. Retail inside the barricades has had a rough go.

“The 38th floor of 3WTC is a shared workspace, but I reduced my rent and got a more updated and lively environment. Vibe is decidedly more energetic and business-like. I loved our location on Broad when we moved there in 2016, but Covid changed all that. I’ll miss my view of the Statue of Liberty but won’t miss the increasing sense of isolation.”